Still Life in Needlework, Part V: Inspiration Is Everywhere

Two photos by J.J.

You have now had enough experience with still life compositions to know whether you want to continue translating them into needlework. Now it is time to broaden your horizons a bit. Beside these first paragraphs, you will see a couple of photographs that you might not have considered as still lifes... but they are. I want you to extend your thinking about what constitutes a still life and where to find them. Still lifes do not have to be table-top compositions or pictures of items confined to the interior of a room. Any collection of items that are not going to get up and move away while you are sketching them (or photographing them for later sketching) will qualify. My grandfather, whose sketchbook I inherited, made some charming compositions of simple items like garden tools leaning against a fence. A collection of modern tools, including motorized ones, would make an even more intricate composition. (And, of course, you can always make a sketch of your drawing or needlework tools.)

Amaryllis, in the style of a 19th century lithograph

If you will bear with me, I will point out some more history that applies to our subject. By the 1830’s, technology had begun to affect the European art world. Artists had made prints of various kinds for several centuries. The Dutch Masters, for example, and the great German artist Durer had made good use of them. Now lithography made print-making even more attractive. The Romantic painters Delacroix, Corot, and Millet had etchings made of some of their work. The Impressionists, including Manet, Degas, and American-born artists Cassatt and Whistler, popularized prints even more. Art shows began adding entire exhibits of prints. Museums were delighted to sell prints of their treasures to a growing middle class. Newspapers, book publishers, and scientists cataloging plants, animals, and fossils were demanding good illustrators.

And then Louis Daguerre, through an unlikely — but happy — accident, discovered a whole new way to produce images, and what was to become a whole new art form, photography, was born. Some of the art world felt panic. People, they said, would no longer sit long hours to have their portraits painted; they would readily sit for long, uncomfortable minutes for the much cheaper photographs. Portrait painters did, in some cases, suffer from the new trend, but only temporarily. People did sit for those photographs, but people also began to buy more paintings of all kinds. And, as for Daguerre, the first daguerreotype he made to show the world was... a still life. (J.D., of course, considers this only right and proper!)

Still life in the style of a daguerreotype - an homage to Louis Daguerre

The Impressionists made significant discoveries about color. Remember when I advised you to put complementary colors into your shadows? That was one of many examples of their discoveries. By revisiting sites and painting them in all seasons, all weather, at different times of day, etc., they learned a great deal about how changing conditions altered colors. The pointillists discovered that putting tiny dots of mixed colors into an area of a painting gave it a more realistic aspect. Those dots are the “ancestors” of the pixels on your screen. (Latch-hook work is pointillism in action!) Although few of these painters concentrated on still lifes, their contributions improved overall understanding of the effects of light and color. In return, these also led to great improvements in the reproduction of both paintings and photographs.

J.J.'s photo of a rose, and the latch-hooked pillow-top based on it

We need to honor one more individual painter for his contribution to still lifes, the Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. He freed artists from the last restrictions on traditional still life compositions. In effect, he “tilted the table” so that everything on it was visible… and nothing fell off! J.D. is going to show you how he does some of this by changing perspectives with his camera.

Different views of the same subject; only camera position and lighting was changed

Pine cones by J.J.

Sometimes simply changing the scale of what you are observing brings up subjects you might not have thought about otherwise. Try “thinking small”. Look at individual plants, seashells, pine cones, mushrooms, etc., and their immediate surroundings. Often this will give you a new perspective on what constitutes a still life.

Now you have seen examples of 'translations' from observations, sketches, photographs and prints into samples of embroidery, needlepoint, latch-hook and other forms of stitchery. It is time for you to put what you have learned into serious practice. Use what you have learned to make an outline for a simple still life on cloth or canvas (even plastic canvas). Then fill in those outlines with your choice of yarns, flosses, or other materials, in your choice of colors, using your choice of stitches. When it is completed, you will have made something that would not exist in this world if you hadn’t created it. If that doesn’t make you feel good, I don’t know what will!

For more tutorials and suggestions, look for our next series of 'translations', Part I of LANDSCAPES, beginning later this spring.

"Wheels" by J.J.

"Resilience" by J.D.

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More From Our Introductory Class

Annake is now offering needle arts classes for Cedaredge/Surface Creek/Delta County residents. If you are interested, please contact her at:  annakes_garden@yahoo.com

My "classroom", ready for action

Some of the results of our earliest classes were described, but not illustrated. I want to correct that oversight now. I mentioned that the students began filling in the backgrounds behind their completed upright gobelin designs. I had them do a very simple background, using the same upright gobelin stitch in narrow horizontal bands. Most of them chose a solid color for this. I did, however demonstrate a background done with a variegated yarn.

Waterlily with straight stitched background

The example I was using was a small waterlily, which we previously showed you front and back. Waterlilies always make me think of Monet’s paintings of them. I chose this particular variegated yarn for the background because it reminded me of relatively still water in a pond, reflecting light and the shadows of overhead vegetation. The students had to make some choices, omitting or shortening background stitches to intersect with the central figures without leaving any bare canvas between the two. They didn’t find this particularly difficult, and most were pleased with their results.

I showed them an alternative version of the waterlily, done with both horizontal and vertical stitches for additional texture, with a background in the same variegated yarn, but done in basket-weave tent stitch. They had not yet learned the tent stitches, but they expressed eagerness to do so after seeing this version in use.

Waterlily with tent stitched background

A length of one color from a variegated skein

There is one caution about using variegated yarns. If you are doing a background like the “water” one seen here, to get large areas of a single color — you will need (as I have done) to cut sections of the color you are using out of the variegated yarn. If you do so, be sure to leave at least an inch of the two adjacent colors at each end of the piece you have selected. After you cut the yarn, you can use these short sections to anchor the yarn at both ends by securing the colored tips under existing stitches. This leaves you with the maximum amount of your chosen color for stitching.

Finished mushrooms

I also showed them the larger design of mushrooms with half of the background done in variegated yarn and half in a solid color. We showed you this last time as a work in progress. Whenever possible, I show students alternative methods of making similar projects — but only after having then do a sample in the simplest techniques. Here the “sky” is done with long upright stitches, but the areas are broken up so that the stitches don’t become too long and tend to sag or snag on other objects or surfaces. The lower half of the background, which represents straw or dead grasses, is done in a variegated yarn stitched both horizontally and vertically.

Back-stitch closeup

When each of the students had done enough background that I was assured they could finish it, we began back-stitching the central design. I gave each student a small ball of black yarn and showed them how to separate it into individual strands. They were shown a sample back-stitched in two strands of yarn and one back-stitched in a single strand. They chose which one they preferred. I explained that the single strands would fray much faster than the whole yarn, so that they needed to use shorter amounts for back-stitching than they had for the gobelin stitches.

We began with 12-inch strands. Some people quickly mastered the back-stitching, while others needed some assistance. They were told that, if a stitch did not show up, they should go over it with a second stitch immediately. If a series of short stitches did not outline their section well, they could use a long stitch over the top of the short stitches. Some were disappointed that they couldn’t achieve truly curved lines while working on this canvas, but one thing I wanted to emphasize was that each canvas or fabric used imposes some restrictions on the materials and stitches that can be successfully used on it.

Waterlily with backstitching

For example, they were aware that the plastic canvas they were using is #7 canvas. (There are other, smaller gauges available.) They knew that this size accommodates 49 stitches per square inch and can easily take stitches in knitting yarn or a yarn of similar weight. They were told that they would eventually be using #14 needlepoint canvas, and that larger numbers mean smaller mesh. All right, they thought, 14 is 2 times 7, so there should be twice as many squares in a square of #14 canvas as there are in a square inch of #7 canvas. That sounds logical, but it is untrue. There are four times as many squares in a square inch of #14 canvas! (Do the math: 7 x 7 = 49, but 14 x 14 = 196.) So the finer canvas will only accommodate a much smaller yarn or fewer strands of yarn than the #7 canvas will.. It will, however, allow the users to make much finer curves and put smaller details into their pictures.

Samples of canvas in various "gauges"

The students were asked to complete the project before the next meeting and to bring it back for a critique and to see some ideas for using or displaying the sample if they chose to do so. Some of those choices include: framing the sample in a 5 in. x 7 in. frame, backing it with felt for use as a large coaster or small mat, using tent stitch to make a larger mat from the plastic canvas so it can be placed in a larger frame, mounting the sample on a larger piece of wood or Masonite, or covering a larger piece of heavy cardboard with wallpaper or gift wrap and mounting the sample. Some of these will be demonstrated, while students are asked to suggest other possibilities. They were also asked to read the posts on this blog for November 3, 2013 (Gobelin Droit) and March 8, 2015 (“Stained-glass” Stitchery), in that order.

I hope you enjoyed this "peek" into one of my classes in progress.

Some project finishing ideas

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